On
the surface Fenway Park doesn’t appear to have the wide variety of food
choices that most new ballparks have these days, since the focus is
still mainly on Fenway Franks and sausages. But in truth, you do have a
lot of choices, especially in Yawkey Way and the “Big Concourse”.

Yawkey
Way is a street that runs east of Fenway Park; the Red Sox have it
closed off on game days so that fans could enjoy an experience similar
to Eutaw Street in Baltimore, with food and souvenir vendors and street
performers, and also to lighten some of the notorious congestion in the
concourses.

On Yawkey, there are four main vendors, in addition
to peanuts and popcorn peddlers: Summertime Grille, El Tiante (featuring
former Red Sox star Luis Tiant), the Fenway Fish Shack, and Wally’s
Favorites. You can get just about anything on Yawkey Way, from seafood
choices to peanuts.

Inside the ballpark, as part of the recent
renovations, the Red Sox tore up some walls behind right-center field
and built in a shiny new large concourse area. The Big Concourse, as the
Sox call it, is large enough to feature pregame entertainment, picnic
tables and best of all, brand new bathrooms. True.

The
Big Concourse also has most all of the varieties of food available at
Fenway, including barbeque or deli sandwiches, kettle corn, and Dunkin’
Donuts coffee. When in doubt, head to the Big Concourse. Healthy options
can be found here too: wraps, Paninis (which come highly recommended by
fans), watermelon, veggie dogs and burgers, even Caesar and fruit
salads.

So if you’re sick of hot dogs and sausages (which are prevalent everywhere) there are burgers, double burgers, chicken sandwiches, chicken tenders, French fries, steak tips (and turkey tips), cheesesteak sandwiches, burritos/tacos, fancy nachos, and other novelty items at every concourse area but the Big Concourse especially. You’ll pay a premium for the fancy sandwiches.

As far as local representation, Papa Gino’s is the official pizza of Fenway Park, and Legal Seafoods supplies the clam chowder and lobster rolls.

Papa Gino’s bills itself as New England’s Best Pizza, but they don’t cite any poll of pizza lovers. I haven’t tried it, but it looks decent, especially for ballpark pizza. Legal is another local institution whose motto is “if it isn’t fresh, it isn’t Legal!”, and while most people enjoy the chowder, there are occasional complaints about the lack of seasoning…and clams.

For your sweet tooth, you can get: Crackerjacks, cotton candy, fried dough, funnel cakes, Hood ice cream, kettle corn, milk shakes and slushies. Try not to have them all at once. If you get up to get a beer, buy two, since you have to squeeze back into your seat. You can share if it’s too much for you. Even with the improvements of late, Fenway still has some tight quarters.

Finally, if you’ve never been to Fenway, you’ll definitely be impressed by the outside sausage vendors. They’re not a great deal cheaper than the food inside like at most ballparks, but many of them, like the Sausage Connection, are of pretty high quality.

Fenway Park still keeps the focus on hot dogs, as a classic ballpark should, but you have the choice of many other culinary ballpark delicacies these days.Enjoyed this article? If you’d like more fan wisdom in your inbox, then sign up for the Ballpark E-Guides newsletter— and get a “Tip of The Week”, specials on already value-friendly Ballpark E-Guides, and a PDF featuring some great ballpark travel tips: "Tell ‘Em Kurt Sent You!"